"A lottery system would have just been silly," Frank said. "It made much more sense to give them to student leaders. ... I gave them to people involved in different organizations that are political or have been involved in Brown v. Board-type issues."
"I exchanged several phone calls after I heard that the College Dems secured tickets," said Ilana Golant, CC '04 and the president of the Columbia Political Union. "I know that the tickets [for undergraduates] went entirely to the Dems and they selected students to go--presumably just their loyal members."
I'm sure tickets for Freepers would be out to the question.